Mailer has been prominent on the American literary scene for 50 years. His first novel, the World War II classic The Naked and the Dead (1948), was an enormous success. Armies of the Night (1968) won both a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. Mailer received another Pulitzer for Executioner's Song (1980), a work based on the life of convicted killer Gary Gilmore. His recent works include the intricate Ancient Evenings (1983) and The Gospel According to the Son (1997).